Rice cookers - cheapo or splash out a bit?

[slope]

Got one of THESE which cost £17 a couple of years ago. One imagines there are millions of these in satisfied Asian kitchens?

The water to rice ratio being the only factor (well maybe also whether to pre soak rice?) that determines suitable cookedness. Pretty reliable for white and brown basmati, but a bit more hit and miss with fancy pants Venere nero, Carmargue etc.

Are more spendy cookers any better?

[Woofage]

Got one of THESE which cost £17 a couple of years ago. One imagines there are millions of these in satisfied Asian kitchens?

The water to rice ratio being the only factor (well maybe also whether to pre soak rice?) that determines suitable cookedness. Pretty reliable for white and brown basmati, but a bit more hit and miss with fancy pants Venere nero, Carmargue etc.

Are more spendy cookers any better?

Yes.

I bought a small cheapo one for the work kitchen a few years ago. It's OK and after a bit of trial and error it produces acceptable results. Acceptable, not great. (We now take this one camping as it's only 200-ish W so will run off a portable power station.)

My advice is to splash out and get a Cookoo (Korean) or Zojirushi (Japanese). We have the latter which has provided impeccable service for more than 10 years now.

[nikki]

I've been making good use of various functions and settings on my YumAsia Panda recently:

* delayed start finish for when I'm doing a bit of lunchtime prep for an evening meal. Extra useful if I'm not sure when the parentals will want to eat, so it can just cook it and sit there keeping things warm until its needed.
* quick cook setting for quinoa.
* slow cook for about 30 mins for green lentils.

(I'm getting into lentil and grain salads for lunch atm!)

I haven't really anything to compare it to in terms of cooking quality, and I'm mostly cooking sushi rice when I'm cooking rice. It does have both long grain and short grain settings, but I haven't long grained very often. It just works. I think I've done brown rice a few times and over that sort of time frame appreciated the set-it-and-forget-it aspect.

The extra features are useful though, so that's one possible metric for 'better'.

[ravenbait]

Have had a bunch of rice cookers, including cheap ones and medium-spendy ones. When our Cook Japan finally gave up the ghost and the company had folded, I went with a YumAsia and we're very happy with it. I spent a bit more to get the heavy duty inner pan, as that's the part that seems to limit the lifespan, although Yum Asia also do spares.

Sam

[slope]

Thanks folks

A Panda has been ordered, for its relevant capacity and what will be perhaps once a month use + cost.

[Slave To The Viking]

I shall open with a reassurance that I'm not being a snotty ratbag - this is a genuine question, not a disparagement.

What's the point of a rice cooker?

I appreciate that the clue is in the name. That it cooks rice is clear.

What I mean is: what does it do that can't be achieved with a pan?

[hubner]

Convenience, if you don't use the boil and drain method.

Re price, even a cheap one will cook rice perfectly, what's more important is the rice itself and the amount of water used.

[Hot Flatus]

I shall open with a reassurance that I'm not being a snotty ratbag - this is a genuine question, not a disparagement.

What's the point of a rice cooker?

I appreciate that the clue is in the name. That it cooks rice is clear.

What I mean is: what does it do that can't be achieved with a pan?

You don't need to attend to it, and it keeps the rice warm. So it ceases to be something you need to manage whilst preparing other elements of the meal.

I wouldn't cook rice any other way, and I'm pretty sure neither would any Asians.

[Ham]

Also out of curiosity, as I don't see myself as a potential convert any time soon, I assume it is for plain boiled/steamed and is useless at a pilau/pilaf etc?

[rafletcher]

As I only use Basmati, which I can cook in around 8 minutes in boiling water (or 25 if it's browm) and there are only 2 of us, a rice cooker is not needed. As for Asian cooks - since they'll be having 5-6 ounces of rice per person per meal, every meal of course it makes sense to them. To most of us it's a luxury gadget.

[Hot Flatus]

Also out of curiosity, as I don't see myself as a potential convert any time soon, I assume it is for plain boiled/steamed and is useless at a pilau/pilaf etc?

You can cook pilau in it, but you'd do the spicing and softening of onions in a pan first then transfer to the rice cooker.

[Hot Flatus]

As I only use Basmati, which I can cook in around 8 minutes in boiling water (or 25 if it's browm) and there are only 2 of us, a rice cooker is not needed. As for Asian cooks - since they'll be having 5-6 ounces of rice per person per meal, every meal of course it makes sense to them. To most of us it's a luxury gadget.

Yes, but in the same way that an electric kettle is a luxury gadget.

[Flite]

I'm not being a snotty ratbag

I was going to post about how good the AGA is for cooking rice, but realised I would probably qualify for this....

Edited to add: we don't need an electric kettle either

[nikki]

Also out of curiosity, as I don't see myself as a potential convert any time soon, I assume it is for plain boiled/steamed and is useless at a pilau/pilaf etc?

I did a mèn fàn (焖饭) style one-pot dish last week in mine: rice and water in the pot as per usual, then chopped veg, a couple of large tomatoes, some diced meat etc layered on top. Set it off to do it's thing, come back when it's done, stir it and serve.

Have also used it for hot pot. Lid up, slow cook mode, chuck ingredients into a soup base and fish them out when they're cooked. Bean noodles that time, rather than rice.

I've not done pilau before, but sautéing onions in the Panda's pot before adding the rice and water in would be fair game - just need to adjust your water measuring strategy as the lines on the side of the pot won't be quite right with the extra onions in. [I think others have said in another thread that they keep the rice cooker for plain rice only because they can detect the flavour carrying over into subsequent meals, but I've not had that issue, even after several hours of slowcooking barbecue pork. YMMV.]

I occasionally add stock or bouillon powder into the water for something a bit more than just boiled rice.

My gluten free bread-making experiments in it were a bit of a failure, but there have been some good cakes. I guess the Instant Pot has kind of superseded rice-cooker dorm cooking hacks, but there are still a fair few recipes out there on YouTube etc. The rice cooker is still my go-to for a few things, even though I've got the Ninja Foodi now too.

You don't need to attend to it, and it keeps the rice warm. So it ceases to be something you need to manage whilst preparing other elements of the meal.

I wouldn't cook rice any other way,

Seconded! 

[grams]

I shall open with a reassurance that I'm not being a snotty ratbag - this is a genuine question, not a disparagement.

What's the point of a rice cooker?

They do some clever stuff with magnets so they stop cooking at exactly the moment the rice is correctly cooked:
https://youtu.be/RSTNhvDGbYI

[FifeingEejit]

 

devastatingly simple!

Might get one now.

[Jasmine]

What I mean is: what does it do that can't be achieved with a pan?

You don't need to attend to it, and it keeps the rice warm. So it ceases to be something you need to manage whilst preparing other elements of the meal.

I wouldn't cook rice any other way, and I'm pretty sure neither would any Asians.

Absolutely. Rice from a pan is not nice. See Uncle Roger's instructions on how to make rice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aujN2mUqcCM

[hubner]

A rice cooker just automates how rice is cooked in a pan.

The boil and drain method seems to be Western, it's not used in the far East.

[SteveC]

We used to have a rice cooker and it was excellent.
However, when we went on a serious diet and recalculated our portion sizes, we discovered that it wouldn't cope with that small an amount of rice (150g) so it went. Shame in some ways.
We now use a microwave rice-cooker which is not particularly wonderful, but does take the stress out of the job.

[hubner]

There are small rice cookers that cooks one large portion for one person or two smaller portions for two.
I've got one!

[SteveC]

There are small rice cookers that cooks one large portion for one person or two smaller portions for two.
I've got one!

I may have to have a look for one of those. Thanks!

[Kim]

The boil and drain method seems to be Western, it's not used in the far East.

Traditional BRITISH cooking, innit.

[Slave To The Viking]

So, my feeling is that this is like a toaster. Ubiquitous to the point of seeming essential to millions, despite the simplicity of putting bread under the grill - but, if that's how you tend to make toast, keeping an eye on the grill just doesn't feel like a chore.

They may be standard equipment across the Far East, but I wonder how common they are in, say, India, Africa and Latin America?

[Kim]

Barakta makes toast using the grill.  We don't usually eat much lot of toast, but it's something she's taken to over the last year because morphine.  A toaster would use less energy, but would take up space we don't have.

See also: The general lack of electric kettles in USAnia, which isn't just about the feeble leftpondian anbarism.

[Flite]

Back to rice cookers:
How was rice cooked in the Far East before they had electric cookers?
Steamed in a bamboo steamer?